designprinciplesandpractices.com » 2009 » October » 26 http://designprinciplesandpractices.com An international CONFERENCE, a scholarly JOURNAL, a BOOK series, and an online KNOWLEDGE COMMUNITY Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:58:53 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Gypsy Mansions http://designprinciplesandpractices.com/2009/10/26/gypsy-mansions/ http://designprinciplesandpractices.com/2009/10/26/gypsy-mansions/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:08:46 +0000 emily http://designprinciplesandpractices.mu.commongroundpublishing.com/?p=1498

A piece by Lev Bratishenko from triplecanopy:

The Roma build their palaces just like the rest of us, one cinder block at a time…

TIMOSORA, ROMANIA – Like Saint Petersburg before she was operated on for her three-hundredth, the brie-colored streets and decaying facades have a dusty continuity. Against this backdrop, the Roma build their Disneyland.

Forced by the Communists to settle in the ’60s, they have embraced a style of permanent renovation. Their mansions, in primary colors, stick like fingers in the dead dictator’s eye. But this provokes nothing beyond tourists snapping photos and locals shaking their heads.

“How do you think they pay for them?” they ask me and then spit.

More…

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